Qataban () was an ancient Yemenite kingdom in South Arabia that existed from the early 1st millennium BCE to the late 1st or 2nd centuries CE.
It was one of the six ancient South Arabian kingdoms of ancient Yemen, along with Sabaþ, Maÿën, Ḥaá¸Âramawt, Ḥimyar and AwsÃÂn.
QatabÃÂn was centred around the WÃÂdë BayhÃÂn, and its capital was the city of Timnaÿ.
The neighbours of QatabÃÂn were Sabaþ to the northwest and west, AwsÃÂn to the south, and Ḥaá¸Âramawt to the east. At its maximum extent, QatabÃÂn's territory extended from the BÃÂb al-Mandab in the southwest to the á¹¢ayhad desert to the north, and the western limits of Ḥaá¸Âramawt to the east.
The earliest human occupation in the region of QatabÃÂn dates to around the 20th century BCE and consisted of a Neolithic population. The earliest settlements in the area of QatabÃÂn are from 11th to 10th centuries BCE.
Later, several waves of Semitic-speaking immigrants from the Levant and Mesopotamia arrived into South Arabia, bringing several new cultural elements, including early pottery which similarly appear to have been derived from various sources. The local and incoming cultures eventually gave rise to the ancient South Arabian culture to which QatabÃÂn belonged.
QatabÃÂn had developed into a centralised state centred around Timnaÿ by the late 7th or early 6th century BCE. At one point during this early period, QatabÃÂn was ruled by two joint kings, respectively named Hawfiÿamm Yuhanÿim son of Sumhuÿalay Watar, of whom several inscriptions are known, and Yadÿþab son of á¸Âamarÿali.
In the late 7th century BCE, QatabÃÂn and the nearby kingdom of Ḥaá¸Âramawt were initially allies of the king Karibþil Watar of the neighbouring kingdom of Sabaþ, but soon hostilities broke out between Karibþil Watar and the QatabÃÂnian king Yadÿþab. During the 6th century BCE, QatabÃÂn had come under the control of Sabaþ.
QatabÃÂn regained its independence in the late 5th century BCE, after which it rejected the hegemony of Sabaþ and became one of the dominant states of the South Arabian region along with Maÿën and Ḥaá¸Âramawt.
QatabÃÂn was able to conquer Maÿën, and soon embarked on a successful expansionist policy against Sabaþ and captured territories until the BÃÂb al-Mandab from the Sabaeans. By the 3rd century BCE, QatabÃÂn was challenging the supremacy of Sabaþ in South Arabia. At one point in the 1st century BCE, QatabÃÂn formed a coalition with Ḥaá¸Âramawt, Radman, Maá¸Âay, and the Arab nomads against the Sabaeans. During this period, the kings of QatabÃÂn adopted the titles of (), used by local hegemons in South Arabia, and of ().
In the 2nd century BCE, QatabÃÂn lost the south-western part of its territory when the tribal confederation of the Ḥimyarites seceded from it around 110 BCE and joined Sabaþ to form the kingdom of Sabaþ and á¸Âà «-RaydÃÂn. QatabÃÂn soon started to decline, bringing an end to the prominence it had enjoyed since the 5th century BCE.
The Greco-Roman author Pliny the Elder recorded that, at the time of the failed expedition of Aelius Gallus to South Arabia in 26 BCE, the QatabÃÂnians were proficient warriors.
The kingdom of QatabÃÂn finally came to an end when Ḥaá¸Âramawt and Ḥimyar divided its territories among themselves and annexed them in the late 1st century CE.
While Sabaþ and Ḥaá¸Âramawt were mentioned in the Table of Nations of the Hebrew Bible, QatabÃÂn's name was not recorded anywhere within it, probably because it was not an independent state at the time of the text's composition.
The Graeco-Roman writer Strabo recorded the name of QatabÃÂn in the form of (), and referred to its capital as (), while the Roman author Pliny the Elder referred to the QatabÃÂnians as the "" and called Timnaÿ as "."
The QatabÃÂnians practised South Arabian polytheism, and the god (), who held a supreme position within the cosmology of the ancient South Arabians as the god presiding over the whole world, always appeared first in lists, and had various manifestations with their own epithets, also held this primacy within the religion of QatabÃÂn. And, like in the other South Arabian states, the rulers of QatabÃÂn would offer ritual banquets in honour of ÿAṯtar, with the banquet being paid for from the tithe offered to the god by the populace.
The patron deity of the QatabÃÂnians, however, was the Moon-god (), who was seen as being closer to the people compared to the more distant figure of ÿAṯtar, and the people of QatabÃÂn consequently called themselves the "children of ÿAmm." This prominence of the Moon-God among the QatabÃÂnians was due to their participation in the caravan trade, within which night travel and the use of the night sky for navigation played important roles. Another important deity of the QatabÃÂnians was the god (), who was invoked along with ÿAmm in contracts.
The QatabÃÂnians believed in the supremacy of the Moon over the Sun, as attested by a pair of Hellenistic sculptures each depicting a baby boy representing the Moon riding over a lion representing the Sun, with the boy holding a controlling chain attached to the lion's collar in one hand, and a small dart in the other hand.
The QatabÃÂnians followed the South Arabian custom of dedicating themselves and their close family members to the deities as a way of showing their allegiance to the religious community and to receive the deities' protections.
The religious structures of the QatabÃÂnians included temples, which varied from simple to elaborate onces. According to Pliny the Elder, there were 65 temples in QatabÃÂn's capital of Timnaÿ.
The economy of QatabÃÂn primarily consisted of irrigation-based subsistence agriculture, for which the QatabÃÂnian farmers used well irrigation and also developed flash flood irrigation methods which were more efficient than the constant-flow irrigation systems used elsewhere in ancient West Asian and North Africa. QatabÃÂn also produced myrrh which was sold to Minaean merchants who sold it to markets in the countries of the Fertile Crescent.
The QatabÃÂnians also derived revenue from their participation in international commercial networks, especially from the trade of frankincense and myrrh, as well as from the trans-shipment of products imported into West Asia from South Asia.
The ancient trade route of ancient South Arabia passed successively through Ḥaá¸Âramawt, QatabÃÂn, Sabaþ, and then Maÿën, before heading north towards the oases where lived the Arabs, thanks to which QatabÃÂn also derived significant revenue from the transit through its territory of merchant caravans trading incense produced in áºÂufÃÂr and luxuries imported from South Asia, which allowed it to act as a mediator in this trade route, thus bringing significant wealth and exotic displays to its ruling classes and institutions.
Trade in South Arabia was initially done by barter in goods against standards of gold or silver or bronze by weight, but in the 4th century BCE the kingdoms of the region started minting their own coinage, which were based on Athenian Greek ones. In the 2nd century BCE, QatabÃÂn replaced these with its own local coinage designs which were struck with its royal mint's name of .
Known rulers of QatabÃÂn include: